Brine, useful for example in the electrolytic production of chlorine, is typically available from underground salt deposits, and at the earth's surface may be in cloudy condition owing to gas bubbles. These are generally contributed to the brine from natural gas contained within the salt deposit. Since at the surface of the earth the brine is clouded by the gas, i.e., bubbles have already formed, it has heretofore been possible to simply expose the cloudy brine, such as in an open tank for a time sufficient to permit coalescing of the bubbles followed by bubble accumulation and eventual slow separation of gas from brine.
It has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,516,799 that liquids can be degassed in apparatus containing one or more glass filters, typically gls wool, disposed across a vessel through which the liquid passes. Such apparatus is ostensibly of particular interest where it operates to disrupt the gas-liquid equilibrium, thereby forming gas bubbles at the filter zone, followed by subsequent separation of gas from liquid. It has, however, been unexpectedly found that an application, wherein the filter medium is supplied by materials such as raw glass wool or woven glass fiber, of such apparatus to cloudy brine, i.e. a liquid wherein the gas has formed incipient bubbles rather than being at least substantially dissolved in the liquid, operates only to further disperse such incipient, finely-divided gas bubbles, thereby providing a cloudy brine at both the inlet and outlet regions of the filter zone.